Intent to Ship: USBDevice forget()
François Beaufort 🇫🇷
Contact emails
Explainer
N/A
Specification
https://wicg.github.io/webusb/#ref-for-dom-usbdevice-forget
https://github.com/WICG/webusb/pull/214
Summary
Following the recent HIDDevice forget() addition[1] to the web platform, the USBDevice forget() method allows web developers to voluntarily revoke a permission to a USBDevice that was granted by a user.
[1] https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/Fk-IJF63UWc
Blink component
Motivation
Some sites may not be interested in retaining long-term permissions to access a USB device. For example, for an educational web application used on a shared computer with many devices, a large number of accumulated user-generated permissions creates a poor user experience.
In addition to user agent mitigations to avoid this problem, such as defaulting to a session scoped permission on the first request or expiring infrequently used permissions, it should be possible for the site itself to clean up user-generated permissions it is no longer interested in retaining.
// Request a USB device.
const device = await navigator.usb.requestDevice({ filters: [] });
// Then later... revoke permission to the USB device.
await device.forget();
We expect similar functionality to Web Bluetooth and the Serial API to be added.
TAG review
Following recent HIDDevice forget() approval [1], a new TAG review does not seem necessary.
[1] https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/703
TAG review status
N/A
Risks
Interoperability and Compatibility
This small addition to the USBDevice object does not change the overall status of WebUSB interoperability or compatibility.
Signals from other implementations (Gecko, WebKit):
Gecko: No Signal [1]
WebKit: No Signal [1]
Web / Framework developers: Positive https://github.com/WICG/webusb/issues/107
[1] Both Gecko and WebKit are unlikely to object to this feature specifically, but object to the overall WebUSB API as a whole, hence it doesn't make sense to bug them with specific questions on this.
Activation:
This feature can't be polyfilled. It should be fairly trivial for developers to adopt this new feature.
Debuggability
No specific DevTools changes are required. This feature is treated like any other JS method.
Note that exposing DevTools debugging support for device-access APIs (WebUSB included) is discussed at https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1142566.
Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?
No, because permission storage is implemented outside of Blink and so isn’t testable by web-platform-tests. Some tests that only verify the presence of interfaces and attributes will be available at https://wpt.fyi/results/webusb though. I’ll also add manual tests.
Requires code in //chrome?
Yes, permission storage is implemented in //chrome.
Tracking bug
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1299351
Estimated milestones
101
Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5640127995969536
Yoav Weiss
I agree this is close enough to HID.forget() to not require a full-fledged TAG review, but maybe add a comment on the HID review letting them know that you plan to apply the same pattern to USB?
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to blink-dev+...@chromium.org.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAPpwU5KgNO-kK%3DS-d_X-FxL3AvKmAmEC99%2B67vzxZgRmv2Bt3A%40mail.gmail.com.
mkwst via Chromestatus
Chris Harrelson
LGTM2. As Yoav notes, this seems like a straightforward addition, in line with previous additions we've also approved.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to blink-dev+...@chromium.org.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/00000000000081697005d8af922d%40google.com.
slightlyoff via Chromestatus
François Beaufort 🇫🇷
LGTM3. Please also merge the PR before shipping.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAOMQ%2Bw9wWtNr4jATnXr%3D1fBzWWCHqXiRCQPB5TUera2_UbXvqw%40mail.gmail.com.
François Beaufort 🇫🇷
LGTM1
I agree this is close enough to HID.forget() to not require a full-fledged TAG review, but maybe add a comment on the HID review letting them know that you plan to apply the same pattern to USB?